[Criterion A] The West End neighborhood is associated with the late nineteenth and early twentieth century suburban growth patterns which occurred in cities across North Carolina and the nation as a whole as the streetcar encouraged housing to move away from the center city and into newly planned suburbs. The West End was one of the first neighborhoods in North Carolina designed to reflect the picturesque concept of suburban planning promoted on the national level by Frederick Law Olmstead which is characterized by curvilinear residential streets with parks interspersed throughout. It was the first picturesque suburb in North Carolina developed according to its original design. In addition, the West End is associated with Winston-Salem’s boom period from the late 1880s through the 1920s when the manufacturing of tobacco and textiles reached new unprecedented levels and Winston-Salem became the state’s largest city.
[Criterion B] The West End neighborhood is associated with Jacob Lott Ludlow, one of North Carolina’s first civil engineers, who gained a national reputation as a municipal, sanitary and hydraulic engineer. Ludlow planned the curving streets and parks of the West End, and he lived on Summit Street in the neighborhood (107). In addition, the West End is associated through some of its buildings with the productive years of regionally acclaimed architects including Hill Linthicum, Willard Northup and C.G. Humphreys. Other local architects’ work is also represented in several residences in the neighborhood. Street Paul’s Episcopal Church (111) in the West End was designed by Ralph Adams Cram, a nationally known architect.
[Criterion C] The West End neighborhood embodies the distinctive characteristics of the architecture of the late nineteenth and early Twentieth centuries, with well-detailed examples of styles such as Queen Anne, Neo-Classical Revival, Colonial Revival, and Craftsman. Hill Linthicum, a well-known North Carolina architect, designed the high-style Queen Anne residence of Edgar Vaughn (371) on Fourth Street, and C.G. Humphreys designed the Colonial Revival residences of J.J. Gentry (48), Norman Stockton (373), Thomas Maslin (357) and others. Hillard Northup designed the R.S. Galloway House (380). Several outstanding examples of the Neo-Classical style such as the Cicero Tise House (159) and the Rosenbacher House (163) stand in the district but the architects are unknown at the present time. Many of the residences, including the 1887 J.L. Ludlow House (107), were the work of the local building firm of Fogle Brothers. Saint Paul’s Episcopal Church (111), designed in 1926 by nationally known architect Ralph Adams Gram is, after Duke University, perhaps the finest example of the Gothic Revival style in North Carolina.
[Criterion Exceptions] The four religious properties in the West End neighborhood, Street Paul’s Episcopal (111), Augsburg Lutheran (168), First Church of Christ, Scientist, (293), and the Friends Meeting House (83), are nominated for their architectural, not religious, significance. Street Paul’s, designed by Ralph Adams Cram, is one of the most outstanding examples of Gothic Revival in the state, and Augsburg Lutheran is built from Bald Mountain Quarry stone in a fortress-like style. Both the First Church of Christ, Scientist and the Friends Meeting House are good representations of the Colonial Revival style which is mirrored in many residences in the West End neighborhood. Buildings which have been moved in the West End neighborhood include the Jacquelin P. Taylor House (74), Maynard House (70), McGehee-Rierson House (44), William J. Liipfert House (222), Blumenthal-Goodman House (73), H.D. Poindexter Cottage (31) and House (32), and the Van Nemen Zevely House (153). All of them were moved to insure their preservation and the Liipfert and Taylor Houses were moved within the West End neighborhood where they originally stood. The other houses, with the exception of the Zevely House, are of the same period, scale, texture and style as those which already existed in the West End neighborhood, and they enhance the architectural character of the area. The circa 1815 Zevely House, already listed on the National Register, was moved in 1974 to insure its preservation. In addition, the Poindexter Houses also are listed individually in the National Register and were moved in 1978 to insure their preservation.
National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places Inventory-Nomination (1987)